Feast of Thanks

Before Thanksgiving break, we organize a Feast of Thanks for the kindergarten students. This is something that would not happen if it weren't for the wonderful families in our school community. Because our school is so diverse, we decided to have a cultural feast as opposed to a typical American Thanksgiving feast. All I can say, is WOW and YUM! We were so fortunate to have all the families send in their favorite cultural food and to also have extra sets of hands during this special event. 

After reading several books about Thanksgiving and the relationship between the Native Americans and the Pilgrims, the students reenacted saying peace to one another and preparing for their feast. 

Here are my pilgrim girls.

Here are my pilgrim boys.

Here are my Native American students.

The children loved the feast!

We had two tables of food and beverages!

This is a picture of our left overs....it was overwhelming! The other teachers in the building loved it though! The teacher's lounge had so many tasty treats!

OTHER FUN THINGS WE DO FOR THANKSGIVING

Before reading Gracias, the Thanksgiving Turkey, the students had to decide whether they thought a turkey would make a good pet. As you can see from the photo, most of the students thought a turkey would make a great pet! Watch out parents....

We made applesauce as a special snack. All the students helped prepare the treat!

Here it is in the crockpot, ready to cook! 

Yum! Our classroom smelled so good!

Family Turkey Projects

At the end of October, we send home a family turkey project for the students to work on with their family members. We have high hopes that the students will work with their families to create a decorative turkey that they can they bring back and share with their classmates. We encourage creativity and innovative ideas! These family projects are designed for the students to do most of the work, with a hand from their siblings and parents. 

To do this activity, we (the teachers) first trace a turkey pattern on a half sheet of poster board. We attach a letter to the poster board explaining the expectations for the project and the due date. In class, we go over exactly what should be done with the students. We reinforce that they should be doing most of the work as opposed to their families. Together, we generate ideas. When the students bring their projects back to school, they share their turkeys with their peers, explaining what materials they used and who helped them create it. Then, we hang them up in the hallways above their lockers for everyone in the school to admire. Below are some of the turkey projects the students created this year. As you can see, I have some pretty creative kiddos!

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins!

During the month of October, we do small unit on pumpkins that goes along with our theme of fall. We read many nonfiction books about the life cycle of pumpkins followed by sequencing activities, writing,    construction paper shape pumpkins and other projects. Below you will see some of the different activities we did during this unit!

To make our pumpkins, I covered one table with butcher paper and taped it down. This made my clean-up duty a lot easier! Then, I showed a group of students how to crumple up a piece of newspaper and stuff the brown paper bag. I helped the students tie their "stem" using a piece of green yarn. Finally, it was time for the fun! The students painted their pumpkin orange and could either use green or brown paint for their stem. They had so much fun and it was so easy!

A student in action!

Since the pumpkins were too tall to fit in my drying rack, I put extra butcher paper on the floor and laid out a picture of each child in my class. After the students were finished, they put their pumpkin next to their photo. I have never tried this before, but from now on, this is my go-to plan! This was so easy and I didn't have to worry about kiddos forgetting to write their name or painting over their name. I just checked before I took them off the paper when they were dry. 

After all of the pumpkins were dry, I used masking tape to tape the pumpkins above the students' lockers. It looked so cool as you walked down the hallway and really got us into the fall spirit!

After we graphed, we analyzed our graph by counting how many students preferred each carving and then added up all the numbers to make sure we had 19 votes!

After reading a book about Jack-O-Lanterns and learning the poem, Jack-O-Feelings, the students graphed their favorite Jack-O-Lantern on the Interactive Whiteboard (or magic board as we call it in my room!).

This was a fun craft that we did after a busy week. The students created their own "Candy Corn Friend"!

We decorated our door during free choice time! The sign on the door read "We're batty for learning!". We were in the middle of our nocturnal animal unit and it was almost Halloween! Talk about perfect planning! :)

Red Ribbon Week

During the fall, we celebrate Red Ribbon Week. Our focus in kindergarten during this week is educating the students on making good and healthy choices so we can live the best life possible. To kick off this event, we created a cooperative project during free choice on the first day of Red Ribbon Week. All together, we tore red paper into tiny pieces and then created a mosaic Red Ribbon to display outside of our classroom. In addition, we read several books that help instruct on social situations and what to do if problems arise. This looked adorable and I would have loved to keep it up all year long! 

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is one of our first units in kindergarten. I love starting with this unit because the students feel very confident singing the alphabet song and for the most part, the majority of the students know all their uppercase letters. Below is an area I set up in our classroom for interactive play during free choice time. I explained the expectations and rules to the students before opening up this area in the classroom. This was such a hit that I had to go to the library to check out more Chicka Chicka Boom Boom books! 

*I ordered the palm tree from Oriental Trading for about $15. It kept falling down so I used book tape and taped it to the floor. It held up for the most part!

The students are reenacting the story by using giant foam letters and having them go up the coconut tree. The students tried to balance the letters on the coconuts and once the letters began to fall off the tree, they would start singing the song and shaking the tree! It was so fun to watch!

After reading the book several times, we watched it on Scholastic's Bookflix. If your school does not have a subscription to Bookflix, I highly recommend looking into this!

All the kindergarteners loved it!

Toward the end of our unit, the students decorated alphabet letters with paper squares. We hung them up near our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree when they were all done!

Our Kindergarten Room

Rug Time

Learning area with Interactive Whiteboard and Epson Projector

Side morning board....I add LOTS more to this as the year progresses.

Our reading nook.

"Quiet Zone" work area

Play kitchen 

As we learn each letter of the alphabet, I have the students come up with a list of words that begin with the letter. After creating the list, I find pictures on the web that the students can use to help with writing. They use this ALL the time! It's a lot of work, but 100% worth the time!

Another example

This is our math cart, which the students use for guided math.